Chapter Twenty- Seven – Rick
The past few months had sucked. Rick now knew the drive from Campbell to Lexington as well as he knew pre-jump.
Coop’s double season with riding and coaching made it impossible for him to make many of the trips, but he’d been there emotionally for Rick.
He really didn’t know how he would’ve made it through the weeks.
Once again, Rick was standing in his childhood bedroom, looking at the posters.
He was in his dress uniform, wings above his ribbons, shiny in the morning light.
He wondered what his mother would think of how he looked.
She’d never seen him in uniform in person.
He’d sent her pictures in the different uniforms; at the ball with Drew on one side, Coop the other; pinning with the other graduates; all muddy from a ruck march in officer basic; in his rig from his last rappel before getting his air assault wings.
He was positive that if he looked, he’d find a photo album with pictures from every big event in his life lovingly preserved.
He knew there was a picture or two of him and Coop. She’d been so happy to meet Coop. Coop had insisted on bringing her a bouquet of roses the first time they’d gone to see her at the hospital. Said he needed to thank her for raising the man he loved.
“Thank you, Mrs. Stanton. Rick wouldn’t be the man he is without your guiding presence,” Coop said as they walked into the hospital room, bouquet of lavender roses in his hands.
Rick hadn’t told Coop that purple was his mother’s favorite color, and even without that prompting, Coop had insisted that it was the perfect combination of flowers to bring.
Yeah, he might have set his man up a bit.
“None of that Mrs. stuff. You’re who my boy chose, so call me Mom. Now come give me a hug. We’ve talked several times on the phone already, so I don’t need to give you the third degree. Besides, I can see how happy Rick is. You seem to settle him.”
Rick could see the blush heat Coop’s face as he approached the hospital bed to lean down and embrace Rick’s mom.
He felt tears in his eyes and looked to the ceiling.
Rick was determined to not cry in front of his parents or brother.
They needed him to be strong. They didn’t need to be coddling him.
When he was alone with Coop, he’d break down. Be the young boy losing his mother.
“Baby boy?” his mother called out. Rick took a deep breath and moved over to the bed, sitting on the side and holding his mother’s hand.
He ran his finger along hers. There was no polish on the nails, which made him frown.
She’d always had manicures every other week.
Said that she deserved the pampering after running around with her students every day.
“We need to find a stylist who will come and do your nails. Maybe Julia has something with her. I could run out and pick up some polish. What color do you think? Fuchsia? Hot pink? Periwinkle?” Look at him knowing periwinkle.
He had a memory of playing with all the bottles at the salon when he was young, before he was old enough to go to school.
His mother would take him with her to her appointments, then they’d go to Dairy Queen for ice cream cones to take to the park.
“Richard, my nails are fine but I don’t think you are.
You’ve been determined to prove something to your father and me since you were a baby.
We could never figure out what or why. You’ve been nothing but endless joy and happiness for us.
We didn’t think we would ever be blessed with another child after trying so long to give Christopher a sibling but then you surprised us.
I couldn’t be more proud of you than I am.
You’ve opened your heart to someone worthy of you.
Someone who will protect your heart from the ugly realities that you’ll face as a soldier.
Someone who will give you strength when yours is failing.
Just like you’ll do the same for him,” she finished by squeezing his hand.
“You are absolutely correct, Mom,” Coop said from the other side of the bed. “I’ll be by Rick’s side until he tells me to leave.”
“Then you’ll be there forever.” Mom held her other hand out to Coop. He took her hand in both of his and sat on the bed, mirroring Rick. “You two have brought me so much joy in the past few months. I can rest knowing that one of my sons has someone by him.”
“Maybe both of your sons have someone,” Rick muttered under his breath.
“What did you say?” Crap. There was no way he was going to tell his mother about Christopher and Julia. If they were even a couple? Was it too soon? His brain hurt. Time for a diversion.
“I said, do you like the bouquet Coop picked out?” Rick asked.
His mother narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that was not what he said.
“Yes, I love it. You know that purple is my favorite color.” She looked at the bouquet on the side table.
“We should call Hal and have him bring a vase for them.” His mother closed her eyes for a minute, then opened them to look Rick in the eye.
“Should your father and I have told you what was going on? Probably but should’ves and could’ves are neither here nor there.
We didn’t want to face the fact that the treatments weren’t working.
We hoped the treatments were killing it all and that my body was spending all it had to recuperate.
” Rick watched tears form in his mother’s eyes and searched for something to stop them.
“Mrs. Stanton, you should’ve seen the bikes at the race I was coaching at this weekend. They were—"
“Rick? You ready?” Coop asked from the doorway.
He was dressed in a black suit with a purple tie.
Rick chewed on the inside of his cheek for a minute, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He couldn’t put this off any longer. He walked over to Coop and dropped his head to his shoulder, wrapping his arms around his man, but didn’t pull him too close.
Even with his grief swamping him, he needed his uniform to look pristine for his mother.
But the quiet strength that he would get from Coop was as necessary as breathing right then.
“Yeah, it’s time,” he said quietly. Time to go say his final goodbyes to his mother. Fuck.
Rick climbed out of the limo and moved to the side for the rest of the family to exit.
He felt more than saw people coming up to his side.
When he turned, his jaw dropped to the ground.
Drew was walking up with Brody at his side, followed by some of his family.
Drew’s parents, his uncle Danny, Cal, and Maddy, with Julia bringing up the rear.
Looked like all those who lived in North Carolina were here.
Drew got to him first and pulled him into a hug.
Rick tried to hold in the tears, feeling Drew’s arms around him with Coop’s hand on his back.
“Tris and Cam send their condolences. Cam’s out on a west coast swing with the team.
Tris is sitting on a board that he couldn’t get out of.
Uncle Mackey and Scott said to tell you they’ll see you when you get back to Campbell,” Drew said as he pulled back and looked over Rick’s shoulder.
“What the fuck?” Drew exclaimed under his breath, but not softly enough; his mother smacked his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Andrew Brian Nolan, we might not be in the church yet but you will show respect. You are not a heathen,” Mrs. Nolan said as she shoved her son out of her way to wrap Rick in her arms. “I’m sorry.”
“But Mom? When did that happen?” Drew demanded. Rick turned and saw what had Drew in a tizzy. Julia and Christopher were embracing. Yup, Rick had been correct when he’d thought he’d noticed something when Julia and Christopher had met. There was no mistaking that they were more than just friends.
Rick introduced Drew’s family to his father.
He could see how their showing up was affecting his father.
A sheen of tears had been hovering in his eyes since Rick and Coop had arrived.
Rick watched as they overflowed and trailed down his face.
Drew’s father, Kevin, stepped up to him and said something that Rick couldn’t hear before handing his father a handkerchief.
“Liam sends his love and sympathy. One of the triplets is sick, and Amy had a field trip today, so he stayed with the kids,” Uncle Danny said as he shook Rick’s hand.
“Comes in handy having a doctor in the family. Looks like you’ll be finding that out if things work out between your brother and Julia.
I will warn you about something that Cam found out years ago: Kevin might seem laid-back, but when it comes to his kids, yeah, not so much.
Might want to suggest to your brother that asking Julia’s father for his baby girl’s hand in marriage would be appropriate. ”
Rick’s mouth opened and closed like he was a guppy fish blowing bubbles. Yeah, the thought of his brother and Julia together had crossed his mind, but he wasn’t sure it had fully sunk in. Hmmm, maybe Drew and he were going to be brothers-in-law.